“You can’t feel the passion and see what you want to see and be involved in what you want to be involved in from afar. Yes, we’re from the USA, but we intend to be here very often. We intend to be at the matches. That’s why we’re involved, to be a part of it, to be associated with it. Just to be part of that, to see it in front of you, to experience it. There’s nothing else in the world that can make you feel like that.”

— Joel Glazer, July 2, 2005

Nobody at Manchester United seems quite sure when they last saw the Glazers. There was an alleged sighting of Avram, one of Joel’s brothers and fellow directors, at the home victory over Bolton Wanderers last month and there was a big family outing to the showdown with Chelsea in November, but otherwise United’s most compelling season in years has unfolded with barely an appearance from their American owners, the ones who said they bought the club to “get goose bumps” and have “tears roll from their eyes”.

Tonight, Old Trafford will stage a match of immense significance in the Champions League, with 76,000 spectators desperate to see whether United can overturn AS Roma’s 2-1 first-leg lead to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 2002. Sir Alex Ferguson, among others, has suggested that a “great night” and a “fantastic atmosphere” lie in prospect. Surely the Glazers will be in attendance? Apparently they will not, although they will be watching on television 4,500 miles away in Florida. Is there anything wrong with that? Do they, as owners of the self-styled biggest club in world football, have an obligation, moral or otherwise, to maintain a visible presence at United such as that already established by George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks, their fellow American investors, at Liverpool?

“It’s a valid question,” one member of the Glazer camp says. “But that presumes that there’s an expectation they would be there. It’s wrong to expect them to be at every game. But that doesn’t mean they’re uninterested — absolutely the opposite. They are incredibly passionate about Manchester United, incredibly passionate. They watch every game avidly. Does the fact that they’re not at every game mean they’re any less passionate? I don’t think it does.”

In short, the Glazers have become happy to be armchair supporters and, given that they continue to be viewed with either suspicion or hostility by the overwhelming majority of United fans, in one sense that is understandable. On one of their only visits this season, for the opening Barclays Premiership match away to Fulham, they leant out of the directors’ box to sign autographs for some before kick-off, but later, at their city centre hotel, were forced from their bedrooms when an attempted break-in by a 30-strong mob led to an evacuation.

Much of the overt hostility has dissipated —perhaps in many cases because the doomsday scenarios laid out when the takeover was completed in the summer of 2005 have not unfolded — but ill-feeling remains.

Could they have handled the takeover better and engineered a situation where they could turn up at Old Trafford without worrying about their safety? They have never, despite repeated requests, communicated with the club’s supporters. They have never even communicated with the media, save for Joel’s interview with MUTV, the club’s in-house television station, once the £790 million takeover was completed.

In an extensive interview last week with The Tampa Tribune, in his capacity as executive vice-president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers American football franchise, discussion of United was one of two subjects declared off-limits to the journalist. The other was the health of their father, Malcolm, whose recovery from two strokes last year has been slow and difficult for what is a very close family.

“The Glazers are extremely private people,” one source said about their policy of silence. Yet they remain the very public face of the Buccaneers, which is brave, given that their team endured a disastrous season in the NFL. Whatever United’s supporters may think of them, nobody can accuse the Glazers of being fickle, whether by distancing themselves from the “Bucs” or by seeking refuge in the sunny climate that has settled over Old Trafford this season.

“They’re damned if they do turn up and damned if they don’t,” the source continued. “If they don’t, people claim they’re not interested. If they do, people accuse them of looking for reflected glory from the team. They can’t win.”

In one sense, though, the Glazers definitely can win. They have already enjoyed a series of triumphs off the pitch — vastly increased match-day revenue (thanks to the stadium expansion and ticket-price hikes) and commercial profits (thanks to a series of lucrative sponsorship deals, most notably the £14.1 million-a-year contract with AIG) — and, with United on course for a season that far surpasses the modest expectations laid out in their budgets (third place in the Premiership, last 16 in the Champions League, fourth round in both domestic cup competitions), the club are set to enjoy profits even greater than those that David Gill, the chief executive, had in mind recently when he predicted “dramatic growth, due to a combination of increased stadium capacity and greater sponsorship and television income”.

All of which vindicates the Glazers’ decision to buy the club at a time when Gillett and Hicks, not to mention Randy Lerner, at Aston Villa, had barely heard of the game they call soccer. Their borrowings against the club remain enormous and are the main source of the supporters’ ire, but, on the basis of this season and the forthcoming television contracts, their expensive gambles may be starting to pay off, their sums beginning to add up. But what does not add up is their continued absenteeism.

Surely, as people who are passionate about sport, it is nights such as tonight that make Manchester United more than just another company in their portfolio. They will be watching on the television back home in Florida, but it is just not the same. In that sense, if not others, it is is their loss.

— Manchester United (1) v AS Roma (2)

Quarter-final, second leg, Old Trafford. Live on ITV1, from 7.30pm (kick-off 7.45pm)

The winners will go through to face the victors in the AC Milan (2) v Bayern Munich (2) tie in the semi-finals on April 24 or 25 and May 1 or 2

— KEY CLASH

Rio Ferdinand v Francesco Totti

For those of us who have spent years wondering just what all the fuss is about with Totti, his performance in last week’s first leg was an education. Although in theory a lone striker, the Roma forward likes to drop very deep in search of the ball, thus creating space for his teammates to run into. It makes him almost impossible to mark, so it will be a testing evening for Ferdinand and Wes Brown in the centre of the United defence. Do they go with him or would that merely play into his hands, sucking them out of position and leaving space for Cristian Wilhelmsson and Mancini? It is a tough question